Through the Fire

It feels like a lifetime has happened in the last month.

Mere days after I put up my last post, Alberta entered into the worst wildfire season of our history. A fierce north-west wind combined with 30+ degree days and a tinder-dry landscape meant that soon there was a swath of fires on the map from southern Saskatchewan up to northwest Alberta and BC. The skies were orange, and air quality was terrible.

Everyone around here was talking evacuation plans. Drayton Valley was evacuated. Over the next few weeks, fires would touch or consume houses in many other communities closer to home for me.

While we never had a fire especially close to us, there were out-of-control wildfires southeast of Nampa, a community twenty minutes south of Peace River, and creeping toward the mill where my husband works. To the west of us about an hour, several more communities had to evacuate because of an out-of-control fire.

Firefighters were called in from other places. Technically, we’re all still under evacuation alert, though some rain last week means that some of the fires are now classified as being held or under control. As of this morning, there are sixty active wildfires in Alberta, out of 539 total. Several weeks ago at the peak, we had over 115 active, and we already had more burned area than the province normally gets during an entire season.

It was a scary time for everyone, and my heart is broken for those who lost their homes. I’m so very grateful it wasn’t worse, and that we remained unscathed. No, fire season isn’t over, but I do hope the worst is behind us.

My Facebook post from May 5, 2023. Images show our yard with heavy brown clouds above mostly brown grass.

However, despite the wildfire threat, life has continued apace, as it does. In the last month:

New website for My Secret Wish Knitting

I started and am over halfway through building a new separate website for my knitting business. For the first time ever, My Secret Wish Knitting will have a completely separate web presence from my personal/author brand. It’s a lot of work, and I’ve been pulling long hours, but I’m so excited about the flexibility this will give me to grow both businesses separately.

If all goes well, this new site will be open in a few weeks.

Jude leaving for the Army

My oldest son has been going through a rather long hiring process to get into the Canadian Armed Forces as a combat engineer. On Thursday, he went through the final stage, which was being sworn in for military service. Jason and I went to Edmonton with him for the ceremony.

He leaves for basic training on June 10.

Jude being sworn in to military service.

It’s officially official.

Posing with the proud parents.

Since we were in the city, we went somewhere different for lunch. We highly recommend the Portuguese Canadian Bakery on 118th in Edmonton! (I ribbed Jude about his stoic “smile.” His response: “I was smiling!”

Jabin Graduating

This weekend (June 3) is the grad ceremony for Jabin, my third-born. He’s going to be away during the week for most of the summer for his summer job as a camp counselor. So, pretty soon, my husband and I will get a taste of empty nest. Noah will still be here, but that will be the fewest number of kids we’ve ever had home at once.

Other Milestones

This Saturday also marks eight years since Levi went to heaven. I still miss him every day.

Also, I’m trying to revitalize my garden. I haven’t done any gardening (except some very negligent maintenance on my flower beds) since 2016, so my raised beds and the piles of dirt I’d had brought in that year to make more have been completely overrun by quack grass. I know that getting them back to usable state is likely to take the whole summer. My primary goal is to create a new flower bed near our new house so I can move my plants from the old trailer so we can sell it. (I don’t want them to get destroyed when the trailer is moved, so I’ve been slowing down the process.)

Despite the rain and a nasty stomach bug that has incapacitated me for good chunks of the last week (as well as our trip to Edmonton for Jude’s ceremony), I’ve managed to make a good start on this project. There’s still a loooong way to go. But it feels good to be making progress.

Keep an eye out for future gardening updates. I hope to keep having them to give. :-)

I decided to start by putting an empty bed into service. Each barrow-full of dirt is hard-won from an overgrown mound. Note the overgrown state of the beds behind it. I’ve got about eight of those to deal with. :-/

Among all that, I haven’t done much writing in the past month. I find I’m struggling with concentration and creativity for that kind of project, and I suspect the subject matter may be causing my resistance. Even though it’s a sweet romance, the heroine is dealing with issues that hit a little closer to home now than when I started plotting this book.

I know I’m dragging my feet on it now. I’m also dragging my feet on seeing a therapist to start working through the reasons why this book is so much harder now than it was before the traumatic events of a few months ago. I know I need to, but… I don’t feel ready, I guess? Also, it’s not like there’s nothing else going on.

Anyway. Everything in its time.

Happy Monday, friend. I hope your week is blessed.

Jude made me this wooden mermaid art for Mother’s Day. It’s like he knows me.